This report will start from earlier in the week and work forward through the condition of the bite since there’s been some changes taken place that most will likely want to know about.
Earlier in the week the bite was unusually tough. Most boats fishing the dam area were bringing in an average of 2 – 4 fish a full day, mostly saugers caught on bladebaits fished on the WI sand, and our guide boats struggled to hit double digit numbers most days. The warmer weather we had a week back jumped the water temps into the low 60’s and the bite REALLY slowed down.
River conditions are excellent if you can ignore the extremely low water levels…. clarity is improving and there’s little floating grass or leaves to work around. Baitfish are present in mind-boggling numbers and will impact our catch rates in the river for the foreseeable future or until we get some cold weather to start the shad kill…. they’re literally EVERYWHERE and keep the fish fat and happy. Many of these shad are running 4 – 6 inches in length so DO NOT be afraid to upsize baits to match the forage size. That 1.5 inch fathead just doesn’t have much to offer a large walleye right now and most guys are reporting difficuly in catching ANY fish at all on jig and small minnows.
So what’s been working? Earlier in the week we were casting and vertical jigging plastics and hairjigs and taking our fish that way. By far our most productive bait was the 4 inch purple / chart. tail ringworm, fished on a pearl white or black 3/16 ounce jighead. Brad Sanford is shown here in the first photo holding a nice 24 inch walleye he stuck on a purple / chart. ringie that he was throwing up onto the shoreline rock and dragging it back slowly into deeper water. This fish hit pretty deep compared to the majority of the fish that we had been catching, likely in 10 – 12 feet of water where as most of our other fish were coming much shallower.
In the last couple days we’ve seen a little cooler weather and the fishing has improved markedly. Wednesday I had a half day trip that never really was able to get started until our time was nearly up as the incredibly thick fog in the AM kept us boxed in tight up near the dam for hours doing the yo-yo thing up on the sand with a handful of nice saugers and a couple walleyes to show for our efforts. A noticeable improvement in the number of fish caught that day by everyone that came into the resort at the end of the day and a couple degree drop in water temps had me feeling pretty darn hopeful for a huge improvement in the bite the following day.
Thursday started cooler and fog-free and I decided to play it safe with a start up to the dam on the sand to get some quick fish in the boat. The bite was slow, one 18 inch walleye for our first 30 minutes spent in this area and lots of boats as competition so we decided to drop down away from the dam and start working rock shorelines…. and we hit fish almost immediately. Actually it was my second cast with a purple chart. tail ringie that got us going with another 18 inch ‘eye and then Bob, shown in this next photo, got us rolling with this nice 25 inch fish which was released after this quick pic. Bob had the hot hand for the next hour as his next fish was a 23 inch dandy followed by 3 or 4 eaters for the box!
The bite was really changing around throughout the day too. When the wind would blow a little bit, casting small crankbaits was the ticket. When it would clear up hair jigs got hot and in the afternoon plastics were the ticket and the crankbaits went completely dead on us. I fished what I call the odd rod, as soon as we find a pattern / lure that produces I switch to something different and let the customers have at the fish until it slows (hopefully by then I’ve found the next producer) and I believe this really helped us stay on the productive pattern of the moment which certainly resulted in many more fish for our boat than we would have had.
The bigger fish that were so slow for me earlier in the week finally WOKE UP and I landed this dandy 28.5 inch freekishly fat cow of a walleye later in the afternoon. Our numbers dropped off after mid-day, that has been a very consistent pattern for me over the last week as I’ve caught very few fish after 4 PM, but a switch to 5 inch k-grubs in firecracker and chart. pearl kept putting fish in the boat once the crank bite had completely died. It is good to see this k-grub bite turn on as it is without a doubt my best producer of big fish through late fall and it had been non-existent for me up until Thursday afternoon. Watch for a big increase in fish caught, many of the largest you’ll see shown around the site, on larger baits like these 5 inch grubs.
This last photo is at the end of the day at the dock at Everts. These guys had been great about releasing all the fish we boated over 18.5 – 19 inches and had put together a very nice stringer of eaters by day’s end. Thansk Bob and Rich… you guys worked hard all day and deserve the eats… and we all appreciate the release on the bigger fish!
The bite up near the dam improved for the boats that I talked to as well with many more boats bring in limits of 16 – 18 inch saugers, some walleyes and most boats had at least 6 – 8 fish for their efforts. Bladebaits have been best on these pressured fish with chartreuse pearl having been hot now for several days. If you can tolerate a couple neighbors and just want to get some near guaranteed fish, the dam will produce and will get much better as this cooler weather coming in this weekend impacts water temps.
Good fishing everyone!
All images above can be clicked on for a better view!
James, that fish has some big shoulders!!
Great report.
Jon J.
Excellent report James! That sure is one nice walleye!
That fish has a cool story to go with it…
Rich and I hooked up fish at the exact same time with his making it to the boat and to the surface for the first time just a bit before mine. Bob asked which one to net first and I told him to net Rich’s first, of course… until mine hit the surface!… lol Rich’s fish was 21.5 – 22″ or so and that “polite guide” thing went right out the window!
Rich didn’t mind and we actually landed them both without problem. That big walleye was one of the hardest fighting fish I’ve ever dealt with… unbelievable power. Fought like a flathead and then made some long runs. At one point I had her just below the surface for a minute or so, just out of net reach, and could NOT raise her an inch and then she peeled out around the back of the boat and off towards deep water. The run was 50′ long if it was an inch and I was putting the wood to her.
Fun stuff! I can’t wait to hit it hard this weekend and see if we can’t earn another piggie or 3.
Great pics!!
The weather looks to be cooling the next few days, bring em on 
Glad to hear the report is improving
Anybody want my Vikes tix? I wanna go fishin’ instead.
James,
Are you using the Stealth , pitching your jigs ? Or are you using mono ? And if you are using Stealth in what pound and diameter are you using ?
That’s wild about not catching many fish after 4pm….have you had a Happy Hour
that has produced more fish for you ?
What is it about the cold weather and the shad ? Is it the cold water that kills them off ? At what temp does the water get to to effect these walleye snacks…
Glad to see your puttin together a pattern…Great job and I’ll see you in just over a week !!
Right during mid-day has been best for me and the action is often coming in fits and spurts requiring presentation changes to stay on the fish. We’re also catching some dany perch and huge crappies along with the walleyes as well.
And yes, the shad are “thermally intolerant.”
At what temp they actually start dying off, well, I’m not sure but as we fall into the 40’s I usually see more and more “spinners” on the surface in the process of kicking it. They never all die but thinning that herd never hurt.
And for the Stealth Spider Wire ?
I’m casting the cranks on braid and jigs on mono.
Thats good because I just went out and bought some. 6 pound dia. in hi vis and also the green color…Does any one in the area have a good selection of hair jigs ? I’ve been trying to get some down here but I haven’t had much luck..
Bucktail Wayne will have a fresh supply in within a couple weeks. Call Vick and put dibs on some purple and black.
fireflick has some dandy ones too. Alma might be too far to drive….
Great report and pictures James! I’m sorry I couldn’t hang at Everts any longer and say Hi yesterday afternoon….was on the way back from a 3,400 mile round trip to Colorado. Should have fished instead, the unseasonal weather killed the normal Elk movements.
I am planning on coming to Everts in the next few weeks dude…should I bring my antique orange/red Sonics?
Great report James. That is one fat walleye.
Gator Hunter
Nice fish James, I was up last Sun. Mon. Tue. with my two sons and the bite was down right tough for us. We snaged more shad than we hooked ‘eyes. I hope to some day put my two sons in the boat with you or Dustin for some of those big fish pictures.
Nice report James, Holy Pig!!
Yeah Nice Fish James WOW
The great part is all of the big fish look like that! Fat, healthy and ready to make it through the winter with all kinds of fat reserves. Someone’s gonna stick a 30″ pig that’s going to hit 13 lbs… and I hope to heck it’s me!
hey james,
this may be kind of a personal question
, but how many 27″+ fish would you estimate you catch per year on the river? obviously it depends on the year and what not, but are we talking 10, 20, 30+???? just wonderin 
Not sure… but more than 30. I’ve had weeks in the spring when I’ve hit 10 over 27″ and Dustin and I will go a couple streaks yet this fall when we’ll see multiple fish per day over that mark. In the next week or so I would expect to start seeing one every other day or so but this year might be a bit tougher with all the forage available. The river is full of big fish… getting them to bite is always the trick and fall is the right time to tip the scales in the anglers favor. Leave the minnows at the bait shop and fish big, fish shallow. When conditions are right you can’t help but catch a hog or two if you put your time in.
Been fishing down there in Winona lately?
30+…..yeah, that’s what i kind of figured. sooner or later i’ll be able to get down there enough so i too can catch 30+ big momma walleye too. but for now i’m still looking for my first 25″er out of the river. i’ve got an extra long winter break this year, hopefully i’ll be down fishin a bunch through the end of december and january.
you know it
. just about ever day i’m not down duck hunting. unfortunatly i’m finding it somewhat difficult finding spots to catch walleye from shore down here, or at least right now it is. i guess i can handle a few 20″ LM though 
.
Jake, give me a holler and we can get out after some ‘eyes. I got a boatload of plastics to try too.
nice report James. looks like time to stay at home and do some river fishing, can’t wait. looking forward to a great Fall. Jack.